The Independent Spirit Awards, originally known as the FINDIE or Friends of Independents Awards, and later as the Film Independent Spirit Awards, are awards presented annually in Santa Monica, California, to independent filmmakers. Founded in 1984, the event was renamed the Independent Spirit Awards in 1986. The ceremony is produced by Film Independent, a not-for-profit arts organization that used to produce the LA Film Festival. Film Independent members vote to determine the winners of the Spirit Awards.
Sony Pictures Animation Inc. is an American animation studio owned by Sony Entertainment's Sony Pictures Entertainment through their Motion Picture Group division and founded on May 9, 2002. The studio is based in Culver City, California. Most of the studio's films are distributed worldwide by Sony Pictures Releasing under their Columbia Pictures label, while direct-to-video releases are released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
Persepolis is a 2007 adult animated biographical drama film written and directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, based on Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel of the same name. The story follows a young girl as she comes of age against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution. The title references the historical city of Persepolis.
Jorge R. Gutierrez is a Mexican-American animator, writer, producer, director, painter, and voice actor. He co-created with Sandra Equihua the Nickelodeon animated series El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera, co-wrote and directed The Book of Life, Son of Jaguar for Google, and Maya and the Three for Netflix Animation.
Thomas "Tomm" Moore is an Irish filmmaker, animator, illustrator and comics artist. He co-founded Cartoon Saloon with Nora Twomey and Paul Young, an animation studio and production company based in Kilkenny, Ireland. His first three feature films, The Secret of Kells (2009), co-directed with Nora Twomey, Song of the Sea (2014) and Wolfwalkers (2020), co-directed with Ross Stewart, have received critical acclaim and were all nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
Triggerfish is a computer animation film studio based in Cape Town, South Africa and Galway, Ireland. The studio is best known for its animated feature films Adventures in Zambezia (2012), Khumba (2013), and Seal Team (2021), as well as the work they have done on television specials created for UK producers Magic Light Pictures. In 2016, Stick Man was awarded the Cristal for best TV production at the Annecy International Animation Festival. In 2017, Revolting Rhymes again won the Cristal for best TV production at the Annecy Festival, and was nominated for the Best Short Film (Animated) Oscar at the 2018 Academy Awards. In 2019, Netflix announced that Triggerfish would produce its first African animated TV series. In 2020, Zog won the International Emmy for Best Kids Animation. In 2021, The Snail and The Whale won Best Special Production at The Annie Awards, while Triggerfish received the Mifa Animation Industry Award at Annecy for "the pioneering role that the company has played in animation in South Africa, and Africa most widely.” In 2022, their third film, Seal Team, made the Netflix Top 10 Films global list for its launch week.
Alê Abreu is a Brazilian film director, screenwriter, character animator, film editor and producer. Sírius, his first short film, debuted at the 1993 Anima Mundi as the only Brazilian animation that year. It won the Best Film Award at the Festival de Cine para Niños y Jovenes and was also screened at the Mostra Internacional de Cinema São Paulo and at the section Animation for Children of the Hiroshima International Animation Festival. His second short film, Espantalho, released in 1998, won the 3rd Best Brazilian Animation at the Anima Mundi, the Best Art Direction Award at the Brazilian Film Festival of Miami, and was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 1st Grande Prêmio Cinema Brasil. His first feature film, Garoto Cósmico, debuted at the 2007 Anima Mundi. In 2013, at the Ottawa International Animation Festival, he released his second film, Boy and the World. This film became an international success, was nominated at the 88th Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature, and won several prizes, including the Best Feature Film at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival and the Best Animated Feature-Independent at the Annie Awards.
The Red Turtle is a 2016 animated fantasy drama film directed by Dutch animator Michaël Dudok de Wit who co-wrote the film with French screenwriter Pascale Ferran. The film is an international co-production between Japanese anime company Studio Ghibli and several French companies, including Wild Bunch and Belvision. The film, which has no dialogue, tells the story of a man who becomes shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and meets a giant red female turtle.
The Last Fiction is an animated film adaptation of the story of "Zahhak", a page from the historical identity of Iranians and one of the central tales of Shahnameh by Ferdowsi. Ashkan Rahgozar is the director of The Last Fiction. The main idea of the recounting of this tale is to lend a different perspective to the legends and heroes of ancient Iranians. Production started in 2010, and since then over 100 animators have worked on the film.
Ashkan Rahgozar is an Iranian author, director and filmmaker specialising in animated movies. He is the founder and chief executive of Hoorakhsh Studios.
Grandpa Walrus is an animated short film directed by Lucrèce Andreae and produced by Caïmans Productions. The short has been presented and won awards in a number of festivals including in Cannes Film Festival, The Annecy International Animation Film Festival where it won The Audience Award., winner of The César Award for Best Animated Short Film at the french Motion Picture César Academy, nominated at the Annie Awards and Shortlisted at the Oscars.
Lucrèce Andreae is a French director, screenwriter and animator. She directed the short film Grandpa Walrus which won the César Award for Best Short Film during The Academy of Cinema Arts and Techniques in 2018 and The Audience Award during The Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
Away is a 2019 animated silent film, written and animated by Gints Zilbalodis, a Latvian film-maker, who also wrote the screenplay and recorded the score. It is animated using the computer program Maya.
Flee is a 2021 independent adult animated documentary film directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen. An international co-production with Denmark, France, Norway, and Sweden, it follows the story of a man under the alias Amin Nawabi, who shares his hidden past of fleeing his home country of Afghanistan to Denmark for the first time. Riz Ahmed and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau serve as executive producers and narrators for the English-language dub version.
Spermageddon is a 2024 Norwegian adult computer-animated musical sex comedy film directed by Tommy Wirkola and Rasmus A. Sivertsen. The film consists of two plot lines, one focusing on a teenage couple having sex for the first time, and the other on Simen the Semen and his friends in quest for the Egg.
Memoir of a Snail is a 2024 Australian adult stop-motion animated tragicomedy film written, produced and directed by Adam Elliot. It stars the voices of Sarah Snook, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Eric Bana, Magda Szubanski, Dominique Pinon, Tony Armstrong, Paul Capsis, Nick Cave, and Jacki Weaver. The film's plot, which is loosely inspired by Elliot's own life, follows the trials and tribulations in the life of lonely misfit Grace Pudel, from childhood to adulthood.
Flow is a 2024 animated fantasy adventure film directed by Gints Zilbalodis and written by Zilbalodis and Matīss Kaža. The film is notable for containing no dialogue.
The 2024 Annecy International Animation Film Festival took place from 9 to 15 June 2024, in Annecy, France. Michel Hazanavicius drama film The Most Precious of Cargoes, adapted from the novel of the same name by Jean-Claude Grumberg, served as the opening film.
2025 in animation is an overview of notable events, including notable awards, list of films released, television show debuts and endings, and notable deaths.